Newport aquarium

[fish_doc]

Oh, the stories they could tell - if only they could talk.

After 45 days in quarantine, the six birds that were stolen in February from the Newport Aquarium - and recovered two days later - were returned Thursday to their Rainforest Aviary exhibit.

"We're all glad to have them back in the family," said Jill Isaacs, spokeswoman for the aquarium.

It was like a family reunion, birds flocking to the new arrivals, chirping and bobbing their heads as if to welcome them back.

Rainforest curator and biologist Ric Urban reintroduced the birds.

He brought them from one room into the much bigger, louder, more populated exhibit area.

The birds were quarantined because there was a chance they could have developed a disease while outside of the aquarium.

Urban said the birds are healthy and ready to be back with the others.

The birds - an endangered chattering lory, four green-naped lorikeets and a Forsten's lorikeet - were stolen Feb. 4.

With the help of the police and aquarium biologists, they were retrieved Feb. 6.

Police say two people waited until aquarium staff were helping a visiting grade-school class, then grabbed the birds and hid them under their jackets, smuggling them out of the aquarium.

At the end of the day, workers realized the birds were missing when only 56 of 62 birds returned to their cages for a night feeding.

Urban and other biologists then staked out a bird show in nearby Sharonville, where they found the two suspects.

Deerfield Township residents William Lefevers and Mary Christine Hyrne were charged with theft greater than $300, a charge punishable by up to five years in prison.

Urban has documented the birds' progress off-exhibit.

"They're doing well, and now they're interested in getting to know all the other birds again," Urban said. "They're bonding now."

High above the exhibit, three green-naped lorikeets gathered around the Forsten's lorikeet, one of the stolen birds the other three hadn't seen in a long time. In what Urban called a greeting ritual, the three green-naped lorikeets puffed their chests out, and nipped at the Forsten's, which nipped back.

"It's as if they're saying hello," Urban said.

Eric Rose, newly hired executive director of the aquarium, said the public has expressed concern.

"It's like these birds are the community's personal pets," Rose said.

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